Janet Reno on Families & Children

Former Attorney General; Democratic Challenger FL Governor

Re-create family & community by prosecuting family crimes

She prosecuted child abuse; pursued delinquent fathers; introduced innovations in drug courts; and worked to provide for abandoned crack babies, to set up shelters for battered women, and to organize centers for children experiencing violence.
Reno said, “recreating families and community [was] the only way to break the cycle of poverty, ignorance, and rage that causes the everyday tragedies-child abuse, rape, domestic violence, drug addiction, senseless murder and mayhem-that afflict society.

Health care & education are building blocks of healthy kids

Here are the building blocks that I trying to pull together: A focus on domestic violence, health care, educare in the zero-through-three and zero-through-five [age range] through Headstart.
Another building block is education, whether it be in those early years or in what we do to enhance teaching by reducing class size.

We’ve neglected our children & they’ve lost self-esteem

She considers youth violence “the greatest single crime problem we face.” Reno realized that society couldn’t afford to delay intervention until 16 year olds had wound up in court. “The most profound lesson I learned is that zero to three is the most
formative time in a person’s life. The conscience is developed and the concept of reward and punishment. What good are all the prisons if at 18, a child doesn’t understand what punishment means and is totally lacking in remorse?”